It has become popular to say that nothing significant happened in the country for the last 12 years. In fact, this is true. Political parties enjoyed their monopoly and expanded their organisations down to the grassroots. More than once, circumstances proved that political parties wanted to hold elections when they were in power. They were not above mobilising government resources for their own benefit. These political parties now accuse the king of violating the constitution after seeing the royal move did not serve their interests. Leaders at the helm of national politics-including Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, late Ganesh Man Singh and late Man Mohan Adhikari, had repeatedly said monarchy is the only institution that has abided by the country's constitution. We must not forget this reality.

The anger of the parties is geared towards the government alone. But they haven't brought out any program to deal with the Maoist insurgency so far. Despite accusations levelled at the king, they haven't reached a consensus on what His Majesty should have done. Parties that malign the king by trying to interpret the country's constitution to suit their purposes is not a new phenomenon. We can conclude that it is the political parties themselves who are responsible for the present constitutional crisis.

At a time when the parties should have worked in collaboration with the king, they are trying to portray a triangular competition between the king, the Maoists and the parties. This clearly demonstrates the parties are against democracy.